St. John of the Cross and Emptying the Mind

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Book II CHAPTER VIII

Of other pains which afflict the soul in this state.

BUT there is another thing here that afflicts and distresses the soul greatly, which is that, as
this dark night has hindered its faculties and affections in this way, it is unable to raise its
affection or its mind to God, neither can it pray to Him, thinking, as Jeremias thought
concerning himself, that God has set a cloud before it through which its prayer cannot
pass. For it is this that is meant by that which is said in the passage referred to, namely: ’
He hath shut and enclosed my paths with square stones.’ And if it sometimes prays it does
so with such lack of strength and of sweetness that it thinks that God neither hears it nor
pays heed to it, as this Prophet likewise declares in the same passage, saying: ‘When I cry
and entreat, He hath shut out my prayer.’ In truth this is no time for the soul to speak
with God; it should rather put its mouth in the dust, as Jeremias says, so that perchance
there may come to it some present hope, and it may endure its purgation with patience.

May we all endure purgation with patience.
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Amen!
 
I started Living Flame of Love

Stanza 1 9. This feast takes place in the substance of the soul where neither the center of the senses nor the devil
can reach. Therefore, the more interior it is, the more secure, substantial, and delightful, because the more
interior it is, the purer it is. And the greater the purity, the more abundantly, frequently, and generously God
communicates himself. Thus the delight and joy of the soul is so much more intense because God is the doer
of all without the soul’s doing anything. Since the soul cannot do any work of its own save through the means
and aid of the corporeal senses, from which in this event it is very free and far removed, its sole occupation
now is to receive from God, who alone can move the soul and do his work in its depths.

Let us go to that center where the devil cannot reach.
 
Though John can be cumbersome to read at times, I think we all would do well to become more familiar with what he talks about. It is like the natural evolution, growth, maturation of the soul. There are stages we can all expect to go through. Dryness in prayer is not a bad thing, it is a call to pray differently.
 
The darkness of the night can be seen not as scary, but as a cloak of safety by which the soul may seek its lover. It can be a tumultuous time – as it was when I encountered the “dark night” experience for over 10 years – but it is also a time of testing and purification, and Transforming Union, which helps us come toward Divine Union.

There is a hymn I like called “Holy Darkness” that was inspired by St. John’s writings, that may make more sense than trying to explain it with prose:

Holy Darkness by Dan Schutte
 
Yes, I think far more people experience it than realize it. And than in our culture of instant gratification and sensory overload they never get what they actually need, time and encouragement to develop the patience for darkness.
 
If you are interested in checking out some MP3s on some of St. John of the Cross’s writings they can be found at this Catholic parish on Long Island.

advancedchristianity.com

Father Venard is now deceased, but some of his taped conferences are available here. They are not professionally made, and so they end abruptly,…but in my opinion the content is clear and easy to understand.

There are other topics discussed by Father Venard that may be of interest.
 
Dorothy said:
If you are interested in checking out some MP3s on some of St. John of the Cross’s writings they can be found at this Catholic parish on Long Island.

advancedchristianity.com

Father Venard is now deceased, but some of his taped conferences are available here. They are not professionally made, and so they end abruptly,…but in my opinion the content is clear and easy to understand.

There are other topics discussed by Father Venard that may be of interest.
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Thanks for sharing. I’ve just started to listen and look forward to hearing what he says. 🙂

houston1
 
Dorothy said:
Father Venard …
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Fr. Venard also did some very good commentaries on St. John of the Cross. His method is to have St. John’s text on the left hand side of the page and his personal commentary on the right. This allows the reader to go paragraph by paragraph. My Carmelite community uses these two works in on-going formation for our professed members:

amazon.com/Living-Flame-Love-English-Version/dp/0855741007/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409597850&sr=1-2-fkmr1&keywords=father+john+venard

amazon.com/Spiritual-Canticle-Saint-John-Cross/dp/0855741244/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409597850&sr=1-3-fkmr1&keywords=father+john+venard

Fr. Venard’s books are out of print but you can generally find them through online used book resellers such as the one’s Amazon links to.

Dave 🙂
 
DBT said:
Fr. Venard also did some very good commentaries on St. John of the Cross. His method is to have St. John’s text on the left hand side of the page and his personal commentary on the right. This allows the reader to go paragraph by paragraph. My Carmelite community uses these two works in on-going formation for our professed members:

amazon.com/Living-Flame-Love-English-Version/dp/0855741007/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409597850&sr=1-2-fkmr1&keywords=father+john+venard

amazon.com/Spiritual-Canticle-Saint-John-Cross/dp/0855741244/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409597850&sr=1-3-fkmr1&keywords=father+john+venard

Fr. Venard’s books are out of print but you can generally find them through online used book resellers such as the one’s Amazon links to.

Dave 🙂
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Hi Dave,

Those books sound interesting. When I clicked on the sites I realized we are talking about a different Father Venard. The priest I am referring to is Father Venard Poslusney, O. Carm.
 
**Book II Chaptter XVI #7. **
Therefore, O spiritual soul, when thou seest thy desire obscured, thy affections arid and
constrained, and thy faculties bereft of their capacity for any interior exercise, be not afflicted
by this, but rather consider it a great happiness, since God is freeing thee from thyself and
taking the matter from thy hands. For with those hands, howsoever well they may serve
thee, thou wouldst never labour so effectively, so perfectly and so securely (because of their
clumsiness and uncleanness) as now, when God takes thy hand and guides thee in the
darkness, as though thou wert blind, to an end and by a way which thou knowest not. Nor
couldst thou ever hope to travel with the aid of thine own eyes and feet, howsoever good
thou be as a walker.
ccel.org/ccel/john_cross/dark_night.pdf

Consider it a great happiness when we see our desires obscured, our affections arid and our faculties without capacity? Hard to hear. And yet so much like Jesus when he says, “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.” Luke :6 22
 
I have been reading John of the Cross looking for a method. I do not find one but the section in Living Flame of Love does talk about a transition. In the beginning, and probably all of us again and again have moments of beginning-ness, we meditate and make acts and discursive reflection with the imagination. But we must always be ready and willing to abandon that and be more passive. Let God do the work. I do not think we hear enough of this important advice. We tend to be too focused on acts of verbal prayer, thoughts, meditations and imagination.

STANZA 3
32. For a better understanding of this beginner’s stage, it should be known that the practice of beginners is
to meditate and make acts and discursive reflection with the imagination. Individuals in this state should be
given matter for meditation and discursive reflection, and they should by themselves make interior acts and
profit in spiritual things from the delight and satisfaction of the senses. For by being fed with the relish of
spiritual things, the appetite is torn away from sensual things and weakened in regard to the things of the
world.

But when the appetite has been fed somewhat and has become in a certain fashion accustomed to
spiritual things and acquired some fortitude and constancy, God begins to wean the soul, as they say, and
place it in the state of contemplation. This occurs in some persons after a very short time, especially with
religious; in denying the things of the world more quickly, they accommodate their senses and appetites to God
and pass on to the spirit in their activity, God thus working in them. This happens when the soul’s discursive
acts and meditations cease, as well as its initial sensible satisfaction and fervor, and it is unable to practice
discursive meditation as before or find any support for the senses. The sensory part is left in dryness because
its riches are transferred to the spirit, which does not pertain to the senses.
  1. Hence persons at this time should be guided in a manner entirely contrary to the former. If, prior to
    this, directors suggested matter for meditation and these individuals meditated, now this matter should instead
    be withheld and they should not meditate. For, as I say, they are unable to do so even though they may want to; and were they to try they would be distracted instead of recollected. If previously they sought satisfaction,
    love, and devotion, and found it, now they should neither desire nor seek it; for not only do they fail to procure it
    through their own diligence but, on the contrary, they procure dryness. Through the activity they desire to carry
    on with the senses, they divert themselves from the peaceful and quiet good secretly being given to their spirit.
    In losing one good they do not gain the other, for these goods are no longer accorded through the senses as
    before.
    Therefore directors should not impose meditation on persons in this state, nor should they oblige them to
    make acts or strive for satisfaction and fervor. Such activity would place an obstacle in the path of the principal
    agent who, as I say, is God, who secretly and quietly inserts in the soul loving wisdom and knowledge, without
    specified acts; although sometimes he makes specific ones in the soul for a certain length of time. Thus
    individuals also should proceed only with a loving attention to God, without making specific acts. **They should
    conduct themselves passively, as we have said, without efforts of their own but with the simple, loving
    awareness, as when opening one’s eyes with loving attention. **
34
A person should not bear attachment to anything, neither to the practice
of meditation nor to any savor, whether sensory or spiritual, nor to any other apprehensions. Individuals should
be very free and annihilated regarding all things, because any thought or discursive reflection or satisfaction on
which they may want to lean would impede and disquiet them and make noise in the profound silence of their
senses and their spirit, which they possess for the sake of this deep and delicate listening. God speaks to the
heart in this solitude, which he mentioned in Hosea [Hos. 2:14], in supreme peace and tranquility while the soul
listens, like David, to what the Lord God speaks to it [Ps. 85:8], for he speaks this peace in this solitude.

** When a soul approaches this state, strive that it become detached from all satisfaction, relish, pleasure,
and spiritual meditations, and do not disquiet it with cares and solicitude about heavenly things or, still less,
earthly things. Bring it to as complete a withdrawal and solitude as possible, for the more solitude it obtains and the nearer it approaches this idle tranquility the more abundantly will the spirit of divine wisdom be infused into its soul.** This wisdom is loving, tranquil, solitary, peaceful, mild, and an inebriator of the spirit, by which the soul
feels tenderly and gently wounded and carried away, without knowing by whom or from where or how. The
reason is that this wisdom is communicated without the soul’s own activity.

saintsworks.net/books/St.%20John%20of%20the%20Cross%20-%20The%20Living%20Flame%20of%20Love.pdf
 
I don’t remember if I mentioned this before in this thread, but you and others may be interested in hearing these conferences by Father Venard Poslusney, O. Carm. I was privileged to go to his Days of Prayer when he came, once a month, from New Jersey to Long Island many years ago. His explanations of St. John of the Cross’ teachings were very clear, in my opinion.

advancedchristianity.com/

Not all of his tapes are available, but those that are there can be of great help. His forte was spiritual direction, and he gave retreats to priests, cloistered nuns, and lay people who were interested in a deeper prayer life.

There are some tapes on “The Spiritual Canticle”, and others on St. John’s writings. There are also tapes on “Centering Prayer”, which is not the type where one aims for a “void” in their mind.
 
Michael_Mayo said:
I have been reading John of the Cross looking for a method. I do not find one but the section in Living Flame of Love does talk about a transition. In the beginning, and probably all of us again and again have moments of beginning-ness, we meditate and make acts and discursive reflection with the imagination. But we must always be ready and willing to abandon that and be more passive. Let God do the work. I do not think we hear enough of this important advice. We tend to be too focused on acts of verbal prayer, thoughts, meditations and imagination.
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Michael, you’re such an honest seeker! 🙂 You’re correct, there isn’t a method per se … or, rather, it’s best called a “methodless method.” Why? Because the practice of it and experience of it can be as varied as there are flowers in the field. St. John of the Cross simply calls it “loving attentiveness” … St. Teresa of Jesus calls it “recollection” … Brother Lawrence terms it the “practice of the presence of God.” Regardless, the “goal” is to have one’s mind and heart habitually centered on God. Sometimes this prayer may use words (typically aspirations) … in it’s more mature forms it is nothing more than a simple gaze. What you speak of from the Living Flame primarily speaks of contemplation as this simple gaze: one no longer has to work to remain recollected because the soul is habitually so. The Holy Spirit prays in us … and through us.

But how do we get to this point?

To answer that question, I personally find St. Teresa to be most helpful. Whereas St. John of the Cross speaks primarily of prayer stages (purgative, illuminative, unitive ways) and the crisis points that mark the transition point between those stages (the dark nights), St Teresa teaches about prayer from the perspective of the “experience” of it. In other words, what does it feel like and how does one know where they’re at. When it came to the matter of these prayer states, St. John largely deferred to his spiritual mother Teresa as her explanations are most sublime.

And it’s all about the “transition” you mention … when to know active prayer (vocal, meditation, simplified recollection) is giving way to passive prayer (infused contemplation). Discerning this transition point is largely a matter of intuition … and it must be learned through experience.

Following is an extract from a talk I gave to my Carmelite community on precisely this subject. It’s written from the perspective of St. Teresa and her spiritual mentor, Francisco de Osuna.

I apologize for how long these next posts are … but discerning the transition point between active and passive prayer is most important in the spiritual life. I hope something in these posts helps! 🙂

Dave 🙂
The Way of Recollection:
BACKGROUND ON OSUNA
While St. Teresa and St. John are considered the crown jewels of 16th century Spanish mysticism, both owe a large debt to their predecessor Francisco de Osuna. He was born around 1492 and was a Franciscan priest from southern Spain who taught in the years just prior to our Carmelite masters. The principal work he is known for is “The Third Spiritual Alphabet,” a treatise on recollection, the “narrow gate” we must walk with no exception.

Through Osuna, Teresa developed her teaching that humility is the basis for everything and that “entering within” is the means by which we find Christ in prayer. And we find many of the expressions she would later take as her own … images like the wax seal and the hedge hog curling up as illusions to infused prayer. Further, Osuna’s way was primarily affective; the key ingredient behind the Teresian concept of mental prayer “as a loving conversation between friends.”

And like Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God, Osuna’s teaching on recollection is meant to be our habitual state. There’s to be no difference between our formal times of prayer and everything else we do. Recollection is meant to be prayer without ceasing … a “holy habit” that is acquired only through years of practice quieting ourselves. Then, prayer no longer requires work or conscious effort. Rather, it becomes ingrained in us until it becomes like second nature … as effortless and natural as breathing. This is His gift to us … where grace and virtue meet.

But perhaps Osuna’s greatest contribution to St. Teresa was his relentless hammering away that the heart and mind must be kept in continual custody … the remedy to the “wild horses” that so plagued her. Without first learning to quiet and still the faculties, the soul can never learn to hear the Master’s voice who speaks to us in the language of silence.
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The Way of Recollection:
A BRIEF TOUR THROUGH THE THIRD SPIRITUAL ALPHABET
So let’s take a brief look at some of Osuna’s maxims from “The Third Spiritual Alphabet” to get a taste for his teaching and the influence he had on Teresa . . .

On friendship with God as the basis for everything:
  1. Friendship and communion with God is entirely possible in this life of exile. This communion is more certain than anything else in the world and nothing is more joyous, more valuable or more precious (p45).
  2. The joy of such friendship is so great that God invites us to it as if to a remarkable festival; for God’s festivals are none other than rejoicing with his friends (p47).
On the means we must employ to enter into this friendship:
  1. Seek this communion through whatever means possible, the soul must be ever watchful, not resting but fixing its heart only on God (p48).
  2. Choose the most fruitful method for you and hurry! (p 49).
  3. If you wish better success, do not go out of yourself but look for God in your heart. He is nearer to you and deeper within you than you are yourself (p 50).
On recollection as the cure for the distracted mind:
  1. Wherever you go carry your mind along, for no one should go divided unto himself. Do not allow the body to travel one path, the heart another (p50).
  2. He who possesses his mind and reins in his reflections truly loves his soul and in this will find much goodness (p53).
  3. A secure mind is like a continual feast (p53).
Osuna also addresses our attitudes and dispositions … how we are to wait for God in our hearts. Echoing the Gospel, he cautions us to be ever watchful … “the Lord does not wish to apprise us of the exact time of his arrival, for we are to be ready to welcome him at whatever hour and time.” (p241) Habitual recollection, then, is the means by which we are to be continually attentive.

Like Teresa, Osuna describes our Lord as a gentleman who, “being very courteous, does not wish to enter into the houses of our hearts unless we ourselves are there to welcome him. So He knocks at the doors of our consent with his holy inspiration.” (p241) And it’s through distractions that we fail to welcome Him … each time we assent, we lose sight of Christ and our union suffers. So important is this Osuna declares “if you analyze evil, you will discover that it begins when the heart is distracted and scattered.” (p244) He then makes a variety of pleas that no doubt struck St. Teresa to the very core:

Nothing is more fleeting in me than my heart; how often it abandons me to run after evil thoughts and how many times it offends God. Vain, restless, fickle, my heart runs away as it pleases, deaf to divine counsel. It cannot be contained within itself and changes more often than the most changeable thing. Distracted by an infinity of things, it roams here and there through countless experiences in endless search of rest. When my heart is totally miserable from all this effort, it reappears, drained of all repose, feeling no peace within but all out of sorts with itself, and then, fleeing once more in a confusion of wills, it changes advice, builds new things, destroys the old, rebuilds what it just tore down, reorders and rearranges things, again and again, because it no longer desires what it thought it desired, and so it never can stay in one place. (p246)

He continues in a manner that foreshadows St. John of the Cross from “The Ascent”…

Fleeing from heavenly to earthly considerations, my heart is open to vanity, curiosity carries it off, desire seduces it, delight deceives it, luxury sullies it, envy torments, ire disturbs and sadness wearies it, so that finally it is cast to all the vices, miserably unhappy and all because it chose to abandon the one God who could satisfy it. (p246)

Osuna concludes: “I am not united with God and therefore am divided within myself.” (p247)

In these passionate laments, Osuna reveals the great need souls have to discipline their unruly hearts … the dangers of interior dissension being simply too great for souls walking the way of perfection. If “con-templation” means to be with God in His temple … then interior battles like this are how we banish Christ from our very hearts. Thus, Osuna directs souls to continually quiet the understanding and put to rest the speculation, scrutiny and analyzing of the intellect to reach out to God in the loving simplicity of our hearts … what St. Teresa would later describe as to “not think much, but love much.”
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The Way of Recollection:
IMPACT ON ST. TERESA
Knowing St. Teresa’s own struggles with a distracted mind and heart – the wild horses that plagued her – it’s easy to see how such teachings spoke to her and showed the way out of her life-long dilemma. These internal battles were especially acute in her early life in Carmel. She was young – familiar with popular devotional books - but knowing very little about prayer itself. Then her uncle wisely discerned what was missing and introduced her to “The Third Spiritual Alphabet.” The impact, she tells us, was immediate:

My uncle gave me a book. It is called The Third Spiritual Alphabet and endeavors to teach the prayer of recollection. And although during this first year I read many good books, I did not know how to proceed in prayer or how to be recollected. And so I was very happy with this book and resolved to follow that path with all my strength. I began to take time out for solitude, to confess frequently and to follow that path, taking the book for my master (Life, p67).

As St. Teresa describes, prior to reading Osuna she paid little attention to venial sins and imperfections – especially the type of interior struggles Osuna described in his laments. And that nearly destroyed her. But now,

His Majesty began to grant me many favors. He granted me the prayer of quiet. And sometimes I arrived at union, although I did not understand what the one was or the other or how much they were to be prized. (Life, p67).

And young and impressionable though she was, Teresa discovered a method of recollecting her mind and heart that was all her own: reading a few short lines from a book as a means to spark interior conversation with Christ:

My thoughts ran wild. With a book I began to collect them and my soul was drawn to recollection. And many times just opening a book was enough; at other times I read a little, and at others a great deal, according to the favor the Lord granted me (Life, p69).
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The Way of Recollection:
TERESA’S NEW CONTRIBUTION – Describing the Gateway to Infused Prayer
Active recollection in the manner of Osuna led Teresa quickly and naturally to the passive recollection she did not yet understand but would latter describe in such sublime detail. She went from wandering outside the castle and wading in the moat … to knocking on the door of the King’s inner chamber. What a marvelous surprise and grace this must have seemed!

So the grace of contemplation began to flower. Later, the Lord granted her further gifts: first the ability to understand what she was experiencing; then the ability to explain it to others. In time her teachings expanded on what she learned from Osuna to add something new: marvelous descriptions of the mysterious intersection where our action in prayer gives way to God’s initiative in infused contemplation … the active yielding to the passive.

Let’s turn to “The Way of Perfection” to show how this passing to the infused occurs. As mentioned, the soul uses a book, picture or other suitable method to gather the faculties:

This prayer is called recollection because the soul enters within itself to be with its God. And the Divine Master comes more quickly to teach it and give it the prayer of quiet than He would through any other method (Way of Perfection, Ch 28).

She continues . . .

If the recollection is true, it is felt very clearly for it produces some effect in the soul … there is a withdrawing of the senses … the eyes close … the faculties are drawn inward … the soul is aware of being strengthened and fortified (Way of Perfection, Ch 28).

During this prayer, the intellect continues to work though the effort becomes simplified. Our interior conversation slows … words are replaced by a simple gaze. Perhaps, then, the Lord will take us by the hand to cross the bridge to infused prayer as St. Teresa describes in her descriptions of the prayer of quiet:

The soul enters into peace or, better, the Lord puts it at peace by His presence. The soul fails to understand how it understands for this state resembles an interior and exterior swoon. The person feels the greatest delight in his body and a great satisfaction in his soul. The faculties are still; they wouldn’t want to busy though they are not yet completely lost (Way of Perfection, Ch 31)

In the prayer of quiet, we come to know the words of the Baptist in an experiential way: We must decrease so that God can increase. Our efforts wane and Christ takes the initiative … a comingling of active and passive prayer … part natural and part supernatural:

At most, a gentle word from time to time is sufficient, as in the case of one who blows on a candle to enkindle it again when it begins to die out. But if the candle is burning, blowing on it will in my opinion serve no other purpose than to put it out (Way of Perfection, Ch 31).

Our will has been made captive as we gaze upon Him in silent wonder and awe. Yet our intellect and memory still roam free … the last vestiges of the “wild horses” hanging on for dear life. For this, St. Teresa counsels “when the will finds itself in this quiet, it shouldn’t pay any more attention to the intellect than it would to a madman” (Way of Perfection, Ch 31).

And here it would be fitting to provide a few words from St. John of the Cross on how to respond to the Lord’s initiative and not stifle the gift He wants to give. In the beginning, the silencing of the faculties in contemplation can greatly trouble the soul for we don’t recognize it for what it is; thinking it mere idleness. And sometimes contemplation is so subtle that we trample it underfoot by striving to keep our mind active … to continue “doing” rather than to simply “be.” Either way, St. John counsels:

such persons should not mind if the operations of their faculties are being lost to them; they should desire rather that this be done quickly so they may be no obstacle to the operation of the infused contemplation God is bestowing (Dark Night, Book 1, Ch 11).
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The Way of Recollection:
THE CULMINATION OF ST. TERESA’S TEACHING
St. Teresa’s teaching on infused prayer reached its pinnacle in “The Interior Castle;” a treatise on “the kingdom of God is within.” She teaches that our soul is like a castle containing many rooms and Christ is to be found in the innermost chamber. Her depictions of prayer states neatly fit this analogy … we move from room to room until we find Christ in true union.

The following illustration was inspired by Susan Muto’s “Where Lovers Meet.” It’s not meant to be a comprehensive description of the mansions; rather an illustration of one just aspect of it. Specifically, how Teresa’s prayer states flow from one another and how the prayer of the higher mansions is simply deeper experience of what came before.

When the soul prays with vocal prayers we are said to be in the first mansion. When we work our minds and hearts discursively, as in lectio or meditating on the mysteries of the rosary, we have moved to the second.

With time and grace we move beyond set prayer for a more continuous recollection in the manner of Osuna and we find ourselves talking to God in the silence of our hearts in all we do. We have entered the third mansion. Our cup being continually full, we have done what we can to prepare ourselves for the infused graces St. Teresa shows. Thus, at some point during prayer the individual might begin to feel the inner call to contemplation. The soul no longer feels any desire to ponder on the Lord, His mysteries and so on. He feels drawn to let it go … to simply “be” … to rest in His presence as the Cure of Ars says … “I look at Him while He looks at me.” This is the recollection of Osuna giving way to that of Teresa. Our activity may be greater or lesser, affective or simplified … depending on how God can best work in the soul.

Perhaps this stillness deepens. The senses “notice a gentle drawing inward like a hedgehog curling up or a turtle drawing into its shell" (Interior Castle, IV). This is recollection moving from the active to passive and becoming the prayer of quiet. We’re now entering the fourth mansion. Here our will is completely captivated by our Lord but not in a way that is considered or analyzed. We’re not thinking “I love Him because … or for this or that reason.” We simply love in a silent, non-conceptual way. All the while our intellect and memory might roam free like so many “wild horses.” But we have no desire to pay attention to them … we let them go. To latch on is to resist the grace being given … to bring passive prayer back to active ways. This is what St. John warns against.

Perhaps this inner silence deepens even further. Distractions cease entirely and intellect, will and memory are all completely stilled by God. This is the “pure” contemplation of the prayer of union which is no longer human but entirely supernatural. We’re brought to the “sleep of the faculties” … the silent wonder and awe of the fifth mansion where the Lord is tasted in an experiential way.

This deepening silence falls in the “ordinary way” … the path of contemplation that’s a possibility to all. For some, though, the “extraordinary way” beckons … where the profound silence of the prayer of union becomes the environment where imaginative visions and locutions are inwardly experienced. The soul has now entered the sixth mansion. This phenomena, though, is really just a spiritual type of imperfection that ultimately needs to be purged. And so we also find St. Teresa’s version of the Dark Night in this mansion where all remaining imperfections are purified.

These trials lead to the seventh mansion where the soul finds itself gloriously transformed into a likeness in love with Christ. Here the soul still continues to pray as before … only in a more mature way. If praying vocally or discursively, the soul is quick to hear and answer the Master’s call to infused contemplation. And its prayer never ceases; the recollection of Osuna no longer being a struggle but has become internalized to the point of being second nature … as easy and effortless as breathing.

CONCLUSION
Hopefully these brief illustrations shed some light on the Carmelite teaching on recollection … the way we’re taught to ponder always in imitation of Mary. Much ground has been covered so perhaps some closing counsels from St. Teresa are in order regarding infused prayer.

First, all of these prayer states can occur in a single time of prayer … we move from room to room as our prayer becomes progressively more silent and interior. Second, this journey through the mansions is short in duration. The entire time from laying down our rosary, being interiorly drawn into the stillness of recollection and possibly quiet or union is typically no more than 15-30 minutes as Teresa explains. Third, we should never forget infused prayer is a gift … one that he may grant often, infrequently or never … depending on the grace He wishes to bestow.

Lastly, to best prepare ourselves for the infused graces the most important thing is to continually practice the active recollection of Osuna. It’s a habit we’re to acquire. A main reason souls aren’t raised to contemplation – even the pious and devout among us - is that they scarcely think of Christ in their daily activities let alone speak to Him continuously. As St. Teresa says “practice this recollection often during the day. Then should the Lord desire to raise you to higher things He will discover in you the readiness” (Way of Perfection Ch 30). “A person should desire no other path, even if he be at the summit of contemplation; on this road he walks safely” (Life, Ch 22).

Saints of Carmel … pray for us that we may learn to imitate Mary by pondering always. May we practice recollection continually by joining our minds and hearts to Christ in everything we think, say and do. Amen.
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Dave 🙂
 
The problem I see in all of this is, moving toward interior prayer isn’t as complicated as it seems.

The enormous amount of writings by like St John of the Cross and St Teresa, scares people away from it.

Contemplative prayer is simple and it’s in the simplicity that makes it so holy.

Jim
 
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